Documentary reveals ‘The Village Under the Forest’

The documentary, “The Village Under the Forest,” will be screened at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 10, in the Blanchard Room at the Stephens Branch Library, 315 E. 14th St. in Davis. The screening is sponsored by the Davis Committee for Palestinian Rights.

This South African award-winning film reveals the disturbing and poignant story of Israel’s “South Africa forest,” which was planted by donations from the South African Jewish community after the 1948 Nakba in Palestine.

“The foreign trees were planted deliberately, to conceal the remains of the Palestinian village of Lubya, which had been totally destroyed,” a news release said.

The narrative is told from three points of view: Heidi Grunebaum, the co-director, a Jewish South African revisiting her allegiance to the Holy Land from the perspective of a romanticized diaspora; Palestine villagers exiled for decades from the land to which they have remained rooted; and a refusenik — a battle-scarred Israeli who works for acknowledgment of the Nakba in order for Jews and Palestinians to co-exist in peace.

“The film is a haunting reminder that the future of Palestinian and Jewish life is inextricably bound,” a news release said.

The event is open to all and free, although donations are welcome. For more information, call 530-756-4094 or 530-746-2168.